The University of Minnesota football team has been linked to an alleged sexual assault since September, a saga that has included player suspensions, police investigations and the Hennepin County attorney’s decision not to press criminal charges.

Players were hit with restraining orders in October, but settlements with the female accuser followed in early November. On Tuesday, 10 players — up from the five originally tied to the incident — were indefinitely suspended from all team activities.

Minnesota Gophers football players, from left, Mitch Leidner, Drew Wolitarsky and Duke Anyanwu tell media they will boycott team activities over the suspension of 10 players on Thursday night, Dec. 15, 2016 at the Gibson-Nagurski Football Complex at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. (Pioneer Press: Andy Greder)

That boycott was called off less than 48 hours later on Saturday morning when the player said they would return to practice with the bowl 10 days away. The university pledged the suspended players would receive a “very fair hearing,” University President Eric Kaler said.

Here are answers to key questions about the situation and process:

What happened Sept. 2?

The Minneapolis Police Department case report gave the following details:

After the Gophers beat Oregon State in the season opener Sept. 1, the female student said she drank four or five shots of vodka and reported being “tipsy.”

She went to The Radius apartment building in Dinkytown and into’s Djam’s unit. She reported having sex with multiple men, including at least five players.

The university’s report, obtained by KSTP-TV, said that the woman believed a total of 10 to 20 men had sex with her, including a football recruit.

“She described it as a line of people, like they were waiting their turn,” the report read. “She remembers people having their phones out but doesn’t specifically remember if video or photos were taken.”

Djam provided investigators with three recordings that seem to indicate consensual sex. One clip had a woman saying she didn’t have a place to put her gum.

The police case report continued: “She recalls yelling for them to stop sending people into the room because she couldn’t handle it. Victim described wrapping herself in the blanket that was on the bed and shielding herself from the people in the room. She said she was trying to get her clothes but was unsuccessful.

“Victim said she was scared during the assault, didn’t feel like she could leave, and at some points believed she was being held down,” the report said. “She wasn’t clear if she was being held down or her fear was preventing her from moving. Victim remembers trying to push people off her by pushing on their stomachs and being unsuccessful.”

After about an hour, she got dressed and left.

Why no criminal charges?

Four players — Buford, Hardin, Dior Johnson and Tamarion Johnson — were suspended for the Sept. 10 game against Indiana for violating team rules. After the game, the Pioneer Press learned that Minneapolis police had “mentioned” those four players in the police report detailed above.

On Oct. 3, the Hennepin County attorney’s office declined to press charges, providing this statement: “There is insufficient, admissible evidence for prosecutors to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that either force was used or that the victim was physically helpless as defined by law in the sexual encounter.”

Why the team boycott?

The team believes the 10 players suspended Tuesday received unfair treatment from the university.

The players “have faced unjust Title IX investigation without due process,” Gophers senior leader Drew Wolitarsky said in a statement.

Some players, coaches and fans point to the decision of the attorney’s office as what they believe should have been the episode’s conclusion. When the decision was released in October, the four players tied to the incident were reinstated after missing three games and played the following Saturday against Iowa.

On Saturday, Wolitarsky added: “We also learned that the consequences could not be vetted without proper due process.”

If the district attorney said there wasn’t enough evidence, why is the school recommending punishment?

The U and the attorney’s office have different standards to determine culpability for the same incident. The attorney’s office must meet the more stringent “beyond a reasonable doubt” threshold, while the school must show a “preponderance of evidence,” meaning one side is more convincing.

“Who do you believe? (Who) is more compelling?” said Nancy Hogshead-Makar, a legal advocate and CEO of Champion Women. “You are looking for that 51 percent.”

Laura Dunn, executive director of SurvJustice, a national victim’s rights organization, said schools can consider law-enforcement decisions and review available documents but have an obligation to come to their own conclusion.

“Sexual violence can be three different things,” Dunn said. “It can be a crime; it can be a tort, a lawsuit; and it can also be misconduct. Each system has its own process.”

This deals with misconduct. The University of Minnesota’s office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action (EOAA) conducted the Title IX investigation and filed an 82-page report. The U’s Office of Student Conduct and Academic Integrity (OSCAI) oversees the process on recommendations for actions by the school.

The players’ attorney, Lee Hutton, said five players have been recommended for expulsion — Hardin, Buford, Dior Johnson, Tamarion Johnson and Djam.
Recommended for expulsion from the university are, from left, defensive back Ray Buford, running back Carlton Djam, defensive backs KiAnte Hardin and Dior Johnson, and defensive lineman Tamarion Johnson. (UMN photos)

Four players are up for one-year suspension: Green, Williams, McCrary and Winfield Jr. Shenault is being considered for probation. These five players were not previously tied the incident.
Players up for a one-year suspension from the university are running back Kobe McCrary, quarterbacks Mark Williams and Seth Green, and defensive back Antoine Winfield Jr. (UMN photos)

University spokesman Evan Lapiska said officials cannot comment about details of the investigation or hearing process due to student privacy laws.
Tracy Claeys (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

The decision to suspend the players was made by Athletics Director Mark Coyle. Gophers coach Tracy Claeys did not authorize the decision, according to Hutton.

Claeys tweeted support for the boycott Thursday. “Have never been more proud of our kids,” he wrote. “I respect their rights & support their efforts to make a better world.”

Kaler said a hearing on the university’s recommendations isn’t scheduled until likely January — after the bowl game.

Wolitarsky expressed a better understanding of the process Saturday.

“We recognize that there is a legal threshold and there is a normal threshold and a standard of values set forward by this university,” he said. “There is only one acceptable way to treat all women and that is with the utmost respect at all times.”

Kaler said once the OSCAI makes its recommendations, they are forwarded to U administrators.

“There is then the possibility for an appeal hearing,” Kaler said. “The outcome of that appeal hearing can ultimately be appealed again to the provost. So there is a process for that.”

Hutton has said he’s working on the players’ appeals but has not divulged details.

Hogshead-Makar said a typical appeal can’t because you don’t like the result. “You have to have a rationale and you have to have some violation of procedure or a way that the school didn’t adhere to its own policies or a decision gets overturned.”

Why did the university’s recommendations come after the district attorney’s decision to not press charges?

The federal Office of Civil Rights expects a roughly 60-day turnaround for Title IX investigations, including appeals, according to Hogshead-Makar.

Starting at the date of the incident, a 60-day deadline would have been around early November, when the Gophers still had four games remaining.

“The timeline for this school is way beyond that,” Hogshead-Makar said.

What is the university’s process for a Title IX investigation?

Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded education programs, has been around since 1972. But it was a controversial 2011 letter from the Department of Education that forced colleges to investigate sexual assaults on campus or risk losing federal aid.

When a sexual assault is reported to the U, a staff member in the Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action interviews the accuser and any witnesses. Then, the accused student and any witnesses are interviewed.

The staffer collects physical evidence, from medical reports to text messages, and might interview the accuser a second time. The staffer then writes a report with a finding of whether the school conduct code was violated, along with a proposed resolution.

Either party may get a copy of that report and may request a hearing before a panel of students, faculty and staff trained to hear sexual assault cases. Their decision also can be appealed to the provost.

Last year, the university adopted a so-called “affirmative consent” policy, which means both participants need to say yes; it’s not enough if one just doesn’t say no.

What do legal scholars think about the current structure?

Scores of legal scholars have complained that college disciplinary procedures are weighted too heavily against the accused in sexual assault cases.

Andrew Miltenberg, a New York lawyer who has represented about 100 students accused in college sexual-assault cases, said the investigations often are “terribly flawed from beginning to end.”

He said the college officials evaluating allegations typically have minimal training and experience, and accused students don’t get to cross-examine their accusers. In the University of Minnesota’s case, he said, it’s problematic that the investigator speaks with not just the accuser but also witnesses before getting the accused student’s story.

“By the time they get to the accused and witnesses, there may be a confirmation bias almost,” Miltenberg said.

Further, colleges must use the “preponderance of evidence” standard — the same 51 percent standard used in civil cases — in judging whether the accused student committed a violation. That is a much lower bar than criminal courts’ standard of “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

“In these cases you’re starting with the presumption that it did happen and you have to prove that it didn’t happen,” he said.

That guidance from the Obama administration was partly a response to the nation’s “boys-will-be-boys” attitude to campus rape, Miltenberg said. Student-athletes in particular, he said, were given the benefit of the doubt or not punished until it was convenient for the team.

But since 2011, Miltenberg argues, the pendulum has swung too far against the accused, especially when they are athletes.

“I feel like they’re treated a little worse. I think it’s so that there is no suggestion that (colleges) treated athletes with greater leeway,” he said.

What are the U’s statistics on sexual assaults?

The U reported to the state that it received 47 sexual assault reports during the 2015 calendar year and opened investigations into 15 of them. All 15 have been resolved, but it is not clear how.

Because the state’s reporting system redacts small numbers for student privacy reasons, it’s known only that the accused student was found to have violated a school policy in between one and nine of those cases.

U officials said they didn’t have time Friday to locate the exact number.

Andy Greder covers the Gophers and Minnesota United for the Pioneer Press. Since joining the paper full time in November 2013, he has also covered the Timberwolves as a beat and spot duty from the Vikings to high schools. He was a part-time breaking news reporter at the Pioneer Press from 2011-13, when he was also a freelance writer and organic farmer. He started at the Duluth News Tribune in 2006, covering sports, news and business until living abroad in 2010.

Josh has written about St. Paul public schools and higher education for the Pioneer Press since 2014, 11 years after the paper first published his byline as a University of Minnesota intern. He did a two-year stint on city government and crime in Austin, Minn., and spent seven years in Sioux Falls, S.D. covering crime and education, as well as editing. Josh was good at baseball once. Now he plays tennis against old men.

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